1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to portable truck loading apparatus, and more particularly to transportable, collapsible loading hoppers adapted for loading asphalt or other product at the construction site rather than at a remote fixed manufacturing facility.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Mobile asphalt plants such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,905,587 are known. In the patented device the asphalt plant as well as a truck loading hopper are trailed to the construction site and erected such that vehicles can drive beneath the hopper and be filled with the asphalt which is manufactured right at the site. These portable plants and truck loading hoppers offer considerable economies over conventional practice of manufacturing the asphalt at a remote central location and trucking the hot asphalt to the construction site.
One of the difficulties, however, with prior portable truck loading hoppers, in particular, is that they have required considerable manpower and time to erect and dismantle at the construction site. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,905,587 discloses the use of a bucket conveyor for lifting the asphalt from the mixing plant and depositing it in the inlet end of the hopper. This conveyor requires considerable effor to be dismantled and carried during transporting of the hopper to and from the construction site. In addition, the asphalt being by nature sticky and corrosive causes considerable maintenance difficulties in continued operation of the bucket conveyor.